Geocaching: The Walk That's Actually a Hunt

I like a walk. I used to be a walker. I was more of all the gear and no idea sort of walker rather than a serious 3 peaks challenge sort of walker.

The problem is, as time has gone on most walks are just walking. You go somewhere, hopefully get a flat white, you come back. The dog's happy. The kids have burned off exactly one meal's worth of energy. You've seen a field. Great.

But what if the walk had a point? What if you weren't just walking, you were looking for something?

That's geocaching. And it's mint.

What Is It?

People hide small containers, caches all over the place. Under benches. Behind signs. Up trees. Magnetised to the back of drainpipes. Then they log the coordinates on an app, and you go find them.

Some are easy. Park up, wander over, lift a rock, there it is. Done.

Some are nightmares. Multi-stage puzzles where you decipher a code, calculate new coordinates, walk six miles, and find a magnetic tube the size of your little finger stuck to a fence post.

The cache might be a proper ammo box with swap items inside — little toys, coins, trinkets. You take something, you leave something. Or it might be a nano cache. Tiny. A rolled-up log sheet you sign with tweezers. I carry a fountain pen for this. Yes, it's overkill. No, I won't stop.

Once we found a trackable. Someone had set it up with a destination (Australia) and you log it, move it further on its journey. You can see where it's been, the photos people have taken along the way. It's like finding your own hobbit on their way to Mount Doom and you're helping them get there.

The Bush Rummage Test

Here's how I know geocaching is good. You or a reluctant party member will voluntarily stick a hand in a hedge.

Not because you're outdoorsy. Not because you read about mindfulness on a wellness blog. Because the app said there's a cache here and you've read the hint three times and you're fairly sure it's attached to the back of that drainpipe and you are not leaving without it.

You will crouch behind a bin while dog walkers stare at you. You will pretend to tie your shoelace for the fourth time because you're convinced it's in that wall but there's a couple having a chat right next to it. You will spend twenty minutes on a puzzle cache only to discover you've been standing on it.

Every one of these moments is better than just walking past.

With Kids, The Screen-Free Bribe That Actually Works

"Come on kids, we're going for a walk."

Absolute nightmare. Boring. Complaints within four minutes. One of them needs a wee. The other one's asking how much further every thirty seconds.

"Come on kids, we're going on a fairy hunt."

Different energy entirely. They're scanning ahead. Reading clues. Arguing about which bush to check first. Running ahead then running back because they think they saw something.

The walk is the same walk. The purpose makes it an expedition.

And it works on adults the same way. I'm 36 and I will absolutely rummage through a bush trying to avoid being seen by a pensioner who's wondering why a grown man is photographing a lamp post. That's just where I'm at.

I remember years ago I saw a documentary about Spike Milligan and his children were recounting their childhood. There was a point where they talked about their dad telling them to leave notes in the garden for the fairies and in the morning the fairies will have written back to them. I must have seen this 20 years ago but that's stuck in my head. When I wanted to take the kids geocaching I tried to think of a way to explain it to them to make it as magical as Spike did for his children, hence the beach fairies, the pond fairies who never leave any good treasure, the forest fairies who always hide their treasure in the best spots. If it's a cache with no treasure there's a "note" from the fairies mocking them that they'll never find their hoard. Often when we're out my kids will ask 'dad is there any fairy money about?' I'll pull out my phone, check the 'fairy map,' and we'll go on a hunt.

Stephen King Wrote About This. Sort Of

Under his Richard Bachman name, King wrote a book called The Long Walk. It's about walking where the stakes are life and death. You walk, you keep walking, you stop and you're out. Somehow that simple act, just walking, becomes thrilling. You need to know what happens.

Geocaching is the cheerful opposite. The stakes are "does that pine cone look odd to you?" and the worst outcome is you've had a nice walk and found nothing.

Pokémon Go proved people want this. Millions of people out walking, exploring, hunting. But you're still looking at a screen. Flicking a ball at a sprite. Geocaching is physical. You're on your knees with your hand in a tree stump, searching for a film container with a rolled-up piece of paper inside, hoping to see when the last person was here doing exactly the same thing.

But whether the stakes are life and death or a tiny log sheet, walking with a purpose is different from just walking. Stakes turn a walk into something worth doing.

Why This Fits In My Pocket

I carry dice because a game in your pocket is more fun and sparks conversation better than showing someone that funny short you saw and they don't see the funny side. I carry a fountain pen because it makes writing more enjoyable for me, despite the multiple questions I get for it. I carry a watch that only tells the time because I want the time, not the endless notifications.

Geocaching's the same thing, but for walking. You're not walking to get steps. You're walking because there might be something hidden under that stile, and you want to be the one who finds it.

It's choosing the thing. Making it deliberate. Same as everything else I bang on about.

Geocaching's choosing the walk. Not the distance or the step count, the reason.

Getting Started

You need:

• A phone with the Geocaching app (free tier is fine)
• The ability to walk somewhere
• A pen (for signing log sheets, see fountain pen comment above)

That's it. There are caches within walking distance of your house right now that you've never noticed.

Start with difficulty 1/1. Easy to find, easy terrain. Work up to the puzzles and multi-caches when you're hooked.

You will get hooked.

A walk without geocaching is still a walk. Fresh air, exercise, all that. Fine.

But a walk with geocaching is a walk where you're hunting, solving, discovering, and occasionally lying on the ground trying to reach under a bus stop while pretending everything's normal.

That's mint, that.

That's Mint That, things I tried, kept, or binned, and why.